Rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic and manufacturing method thereof

ABSTRACT

In view of the low comprehensive strength and toughness of pearlitic rail manufactured by existing techniques, the invention provides a manufacturing method for rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, including the following steps: a. hot roll steel billet into rail, with a final rolling temperature of 900-1000° C.; b. blow a cooling medium to the top surface of railhead, the two sides of railhead and the lower jaws on two sides of railhead when the center of top surface of rail is air-cooled to 800-850° C.; and then air-cool the rail to the room temperature after the center of top surface of rail is cooled to 520-550° C. By controlling the composition of steel and adopting a two-stage accelerated cooling, the invention is able to produce a rail with better performance which is suitable for railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority from CN 201710933909.6 filed Oct. 10, 2017, the contents of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to a rail, particularly to a rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic and the manufacturing method thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The rapid development of railway has proposed higher requirements for the service performance of rail. With the continuous improvement of China's high-speed railway network, heavy-haul transformation will be conducted gradually for the existing main railway lines with passenger and freight mixed traffic. And the heavy-haul railway will develop towards large volume, high axle load and high density. As a key component of railway, the quality and the performance of rail are closely related to the transport efficiency of railway and the safety of traffic. With the improvement of the transportation capacity of railway, the service environment of rail has become increasingly harsh and complex and all kinds of defects and failures have occurred. Some rails at small radius curves have defects and failures such as rapid abrasive wear and peeling-off simultaneously, making their service life inconsistent with that of main line rails, thus limiting the further development of railway transportation.

Currently, the method of on-line or off-line heat treatment is mainly adopted for pearlitic rails in order to improve the performance of the rail at curves of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic. By blowing compressed air or water-air spray mixture to the railhead of austenitic rail, the railhead is rapidly cooled, and it is able to produce refined and lamellar perlite structure from the surface of the railhead to a certain depth. The strength and toughness of rail can be improved synchronously through grain refinement, so that the wear resistance and contact fatigue resistance can be improved simultaneously. In terms of accelerated cooling process, few research reports on the influence of cooling nozzle layout to the performance of rail are available at home and abroad.

Patent CN101646795B, Internal High-Hardness Pearlitic Rail with Excellent Wear Resistance and Fatigue Damage Resistance and Manufacturing Method Thereof, specifies a manufacturing method for an internal high-hardness pearlitic rail, characterized in that, the steel is hot rolled into rail shape with a final rolling temperature of 850-950° C., and the surface of railhead is rapidly cooled from the temperature above the pearlitic transformation temperature to 400-650° C. at a rate of 1.2-5° C./s. The patent only discloses the temperature of start and end cooling as well as corresponding range of cooling rate at different stages of heat treatment for rail, but does not specify any cooling method.

Patent CN105483347A discloses A Heat Treatment Technique for Hardening Pearlitic Rail, characterized in that a rail is heated to 880-920° C. and insulated for 10-15 min, and then cooled to specific temperature range at specific range of cooling rate according to different steel types and insulated for 30 s, and then air-cooled, with specific conditions as follows: the process for hardening U75V pearlitic rail is: to insulate the rail at 880-920° C. for 10-15 min, and cool the rail to 570-600° C. at a cooling rate of 8-15° C./s, and then air cool the rail to 20-25° C. at a cooling rate of 0.2-0.5° C./s; the process for hardening U76CrRE pearlitic rail is: to insulate the rail at 850-900° C. for 10-15 min, and cool the rail to 590-610° C. at a cooling rate of 6-10° C./s, and then air cool the rail to 20-25° C. at a cooling rate of 0.2-0.5° C./s. The heat treatment technique for the two grades of materials, i.e. U75V and U76CrRE, disclosed by the patent neither relates to any specific cooling method.

Patent CN103898303A discloses A Heat Treatment Method for Turnout Rail and Turnout Rail, characterized in that, accelerated cooling is carried out for a turnout rail to be treated with temperature of the top surface of the railhead of 650-900° C. to get the turnout rail with fully pearlitic structures, wherein, the accelerated cooling rate of the working side of the railhead of the turnout rail is higher than that of the non-working side of the railhead of the turnout rail, with a difference of 0.1-1.0° C./s. The patent specifies the benefits of different cooling rates on two sides of the railhead for the rail, especially for improving performance and controlling flatness of the rail with asymmetric section, but it does not clarify the influence of nozzle layout and cooling rate at different stages to the performance of rail after heat treatment.

In prior art, the heat treatment for rail is mainly focused on controlling different cooling rates in different temperature ranges to control heat treatment processes, it does not specify the refined control such as various nozzle layout and blowing method, therefore, no pearlitic rail with excellent strength and toughness can be obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The technical problem to be solved by the invention is that: in prior art, the method adopting different cooling rates in different temperature ranges is used for heat treatment of rail, therefore the pearlitic rail obtained has poor performance.

The technical scheme of the invention to solve the technical problem is to provide a manufacturing method for rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, comprising the following steps:

a. Rolling of rail

to hot roll steel billet into rail, with a final rolling temperature range of 900−1000° C.;

b. Cooling of rail

to blow a cooling medium to the top surface of railhead, the two sides of railhead and the lower jaws on two sides of railhead when the center of top surface of rail is air-cooled to 800-850° C., and then to air-cool the rail to the room temperature after the center of top surface of rail is cooled to 520-550° C.

Wherein, in the manufacturing method for the rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, the composition of the rail in step a is: in weight percentage, C: 0.70%-0.85%, Si: 0.15%-0.60%, Mn: 0.70%-1.05%, Cr: 0.15%-0.50%, at least one of V, Nb and Ti, wherein V of 0.02%-0.10% if any, Ti of 0.001%-0.030% if any and Nb of 0.005%-0.08% if any, and the rest of Fe and inevitable impurities.

Wherein, in the manufacturing method for the rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, the cooling medium in steps b and c is at least one of compressed air or water-air spray mixture.

Wherein, in the manufacturing method for the rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, the cooling rate in step b is 3.0-7.0° C./s.

The invention also provides a rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, with the composition of: in weight percentage, C: 0.70%-0.85%, Si: 0.15%-0.60%, Mn: 0.70%-1.05%, Cr: 0.15%-0.50%, at least one of V, Nb and Ti, wherein V of 0.02%-0.10% if any, Ti of 0.001%-0.030% if any and Nb of 0.005%-0.08% if any, and the rest of Fe and inevitable impurities.

Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the invention lie in that: the invention uses a rail with specific composition and adopts a method of two-stage accelerated cooling, therefore, compared with the existing single method for heat treatment, the pearlitic rail manufactured in this method has more excellent strength, hardness, toughness and plasticity, especially a much better strength and toughness. The method of the invention can be easily conducted and has low requirement for equipment, and the rail manufactured of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic can enhance the overall strength and toughness of railhead and prolong the service life of rail under the same conditions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The invention provides a manufacturing method for rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic, comprising the following steps:

a. Rolling of rail

to hot roll steel billet into rail, with a final rolling temperature range of 900−1000° C.;

b. Cooling of rail

to blow a cooling medium to the top surface of railhead, the two sides of railhead and the lower jaws on two sides of railhead when the center of top surface of rail is air-cooled to 800-850° C., and then to air-cool the rail to the room temperature after the center of top surface of rail is cooled to 520-550° C.

The rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic of the invention has the composition of: in weight percentage, C: 0.70%-0.85%, Si: 0.15%-0.60%, Mn: 0.70%-1.05%, Cr: 0.15%-0.50%, at least one of V, Nb and Ti, wherein V of 0.02%-0.10% if any, Ti of 0.001%-0.030% if any and Nb of 0.005%-0.08% if any, and the rest of Fe and inevitable impurities.

C is the most important and cheapest element to improve strength and hardness of pearlitic rail and to promote pearlitic transformation. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of C<0.70%, the strength and hardness indexes are too low and the hardness and wear resistance required for the rail cannot be guaranteed; when the content of C>0.85%, traces of secondary cementite are precipitated at grain boundaries even though accelerated cooling is adopted after final rolling, thus deteriorating the toughness and plasticity of the rail. Therefore, the content of C is limited within the range of 0.70%-0.85%.

As the solid-solution strengthening element of steel, Si is present in ferrite and austenite to improve strength of structure, meanwhile, it can suppress precipitation of proeutectoid cementite, thus improving the toughness and plasticity of the rail. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of Si<0.10%, the solid solubility is relatively low, leading to low strengthening effects; when the content of Si>0.60%, the toughness and plasticity of the rail degrades and the transverse performance of the rail deteriorates. Therefore, the content of Si is limited within the range of 0.10%-0.60%.

Mn can form solid solution with Fe, strengthening ferrite and austenite. Meanwhile, Mn is also a carbide former and can partially replace Fe atom after entering into cementite, improving hardness of carbide and finally improving hardness of the rail. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of Mn<0.70%, the strengthening effect is not obvious and the performance of steel can only be slightly improved through solid-solution strengthening; when the content of Mn>1.05%, the hardness of the carbide in steel is too high and the toughness and plasticity significantly degrades; meanwhile, Mn has obvious diffusion effect to carbon when in steel, and the segregation zone of Mn can still produce B, M and other abnormal structures even under air-cooling conditions. Therefore, the content of Mn is limited within the range of 0.70%-1.05%.

As a medium carbide former, Cr can form multiple carbides with carbon in steel; meanwhile, Cr can produce even distribution of carbides in steel, reduce the size of carbides and improve wear resistance of the rail. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of Cr<0.15%, the carbide formed has low hardness and low proportion, and aggregates in the form of sheet, in this way, the wear resistance of the rail cannot be improved effectively; when the content of Cr>0.50%, coarse carbide is prone to form, thus deteriorating the toughness and plasticity of the rail. Therefore, the content of Cr is limited within the range of 0.15%-0.50%.

V has low solubility in steel when under room temperature, and if V is present in austenite grain boundaries and other zones during hot rolling, it is precipitated through fine-grained V carbonitride [V (C, N)] or together with Ti in steel, suppressing the growth of austenite grains and thus refining grain and improving performance. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of V<0.02%, the precipitation of V carbonitride is limited and the rail cannot be strengthened effectively; when the content of V>0.10%, coarse carbonitride is prone to form, thus deteriorating the toughness and plasticity of the rail. Therefore, the content of V is limited within the range of 0.02%-0.10%.

The main function of Ti in steel is to refine austenite grains during heating, rolling and cooling, and finally improve extensibility and rigidity of the rail. When the content of Ti<0.001%, the amount of carbides formed in the rail is extremely limited. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of Ti>0.030%, on one hand, excessive TiC forms since Ti is a strong carbonitride former, making the hardness of the rail too high, and on the other hand, excessive TiN and TiC may lead to segregation enrichment and form coarse carbonitride, degrading the toughness and plasticity and making the contact surface of the rail prone to crack under impact load and leading to fracture. Therefore, the content of Ti is limited within the range of 0.001%-0.030%.

The main function of Nb in steel is similar to that of V, i.e., to refine austenite grains with the Nb carbonitride precipitated and to make precipitation strengthening occur with the carbonitride produced during the cooling process after rolling. Nb can improve hardness of the rail, enhance toughness and plasticity of the rail and help prevent softening of welded joints. Under the conditions of the present invention, when the content of Nb<0.005%, the precipitation of Nb carbonitride is limited and the rail cannot be strengthened effectively; when the content of Nb>0.08%, coarse carbonitride is prone to form, thus deteriorating the toughness and plasticity of the rail. Therefore, the content of Nb is limited within the range of 0.005%-0.08%.

The common smelting method in the art is adopted to smelt steel for the above rail: to conduct continuous casting for the molten steel in compliance with the above composition requirements to produce steel billet with the section of 250 mm×250 mm-450 mm×450 mm, cool the steel billet, put it into a heating furnace to heat to 1200-1300° C., insulate the steel billet for a certain period of time and take it out of the furnace, remove phosphorus with high-pressure water, and then roll the billet into 50-75 kg/m rail with the required section by universal rolling or groove rolling.

Currently, the main method to conduct heat treatment for rail is to carry out accelerated cooling to the railhead of the austenitic rail, and the cooling nozzles are mainly arranged on the top surface and two sides of the railhead. This is determined by the characteristics of rail: the top surface and one side of the rail bear multiple complex stress of the wheel, and the rail has a symmetrical section along the vertical direction. Both sides may be subjected to the stress of the wheel since their installation location varies. Therefore, the performance of the in-service top surface and two sides of the railhead should be higher than that of other parts of the rail.

In the process of accelerated cooling of the top surface and both sides of the railhead, with the sudden drop of surface temperature, the core of railhead transfers heat with the surface, the performance of the surface of railhead may not degrade but improve instead with the release of latent heat during phase change of pearlite. This means the supercooling of the core of railhead drops during phase change. Eventually, under room temperature, not only the hardness of the core of railhead is obviously lower than that of the surface, but also the toughness is relatively low. The invention adopts the method of adding nozzles at lower jaws on two sides of railhead to blow cooling medium. During the heat treatment, since the difference of cooling rate decreases between the core of railhead and the surface of railhead, the phase change of the surface of railhead can start at a much lower temperature, and the strength and toughness of the rail can be further improved. Although the improvement is quite limited, it can still improve the comprehensive strength and toughness of steel rail such as pearlite heat-treated rail, with the strength and toughness already reaching the limit.

In the invention, when the rail is air-cooled to 800-850° C., the “top surface of railhead, the two sides of railhead and the lower jaws on two sides of railhead” are cooled to 520-550° C. at a cooling rate of 3.0-7.0° C./s.

During the cooling process, the surface temperature drops rapidly under the action of the cooling medium, and the heat from the core of railhead and the rail web is continuously circulated and supplemented to the surface of railhead and a certain depth, leading to a drop of the supercooling of the core of railhead, which shows a decrease of strength and toughness of the rail under room temperature; if cooling for lower jaws of railhead is adopted simultaneously, new channels for heat losses are provided for the railhead, and the heat supplement for the core of railhead is significantly reduced, thus raising the supercooling of the section of railhead, especially the core of railhead. Since the grains of the whole railhead are further refined, the rail shows more excellent comprehensive strength and toughness under room temperature. When the temperature of the top surface of the railhead decreases to 520-550° C., air cooling is carried out until the railhead reaches the room temperature, and straightening, flaw detection and processing, etc. are carried out in later stages to obtain finished rail.

The preferred embodiments of the invention will be further illustrated as follows, but it does not indicate that the protection scope of the invention is limited as described in the Examples.

Examples 1-6 Manufacturing Pearlitic Rail of Railway with Passenger and Freight Mixed Traffic by the Method of the Invention

The chemical composition of the steel billet for the pearlitic rail in Examples 1-6 is shown in table 1:

TABLE 1 List of Chemical Composition of the Steel Billet for the Pearlitic Rail (%) C Si Mn P S Cr V/Ti/Nb Example 1 0.82 0.37 0.70 0.011 0.007 0.44 0.03V Example 2 0.85 0.19 0.88 0.012 0.005 0.15 0.04Nb Example 3 0.70 0.60 1.05 0.013 0.006 0.27 0.019Ti Example 4 0.77 0.52 0.94 0.010 0.006 0.38 0.07Nb Example 5 0.80 0.15 0.77 0.015 0.008 0.50 0.10V Example 6 0.74 0.44 0.98 0.011 0.007 0.22 0.009Nb

The steel billets shown in the above table are all rolled into 60 kg/m rails and cooled by the following method:

a. Rolling of rail

to hot roll steel billet into rail, with a final rolling temperature range of 900−1000° C.;

b. Cooling of rail

to blow a cooling medium to the top surface of railhead, the two sides of railhead and the lower jaws on two sides of railhead when the center of top surface of rail is air-cooled to 800-850° C., and then to air-cool the rail to the room temperature after the center of top surface of rail is cooled to 520-550° C.

The cooling rate in Examples 1-6 is shown in table 2.

TABLE 2 Cooling Rate under Different Methods Temperature to Average Temperature to start accelerated accelerated end accelerated cooling/° C. cooling rate ° C./s cooling/° C. Example 1 827 3.8 540 Example 2 838 3.0 550 Example 3 800 4.9 544 Example 4 846 5.2 535 Example 5 850 6.3 527 Example 6 809 7.0 520

Comparative Examples 1-6 Manufacturing Pearlitic Rail with Existing Methods

The composition of the steel billet used in Comparative Examples 1-6 is the same as that of Examples 1-6, wherein the steel billet of Comparative Example 1 is the same as that of Example 1, and so forth.

Comparative Examples 1-6 adopt existing cooling method: a cooling medium is blown only to the top surface of railhead and two sides of railhead, and the rail is air-cooled to room temperature after the surface of railhead is cooled to 520-550° C.

The cooling rate in Comparative Examples 1-6 is shown in table 3:

TABLE 3 Cooling Rate under Different Methods Temperature to Average Temperature to start accelerated accelerated end accelerated Joint cooling/° C. cooling rate ° C./s cooling/° C. Comparative 826 3.9 538 Example 1 Comparative 839 3.2 549 Example 2 Comparative 801 5.0 546 Example 3 Comparative 846 5.1 535 Example 4 Comparative 849 6.2 528 Example 5 Comparative 811 7.1 519 Example 6

Air cool the rail treated according to the Examples and the Comparative Examples to room temperature, take double-shoulder circular tensile specimen with d₀=10 mm, l₀=5d₀ at 10 mm and 30 mm below the surface of railhead of the rail respectively, and detect R_(p0.2), R_(m), A and Z respectively according to GB/T 228.1; and take U-type Charpy impact specimen of 10 mm×10 mm×55 mm at the same position, and detect impact energy according to GB/T 229. Besides, take transverse hardness specimen from the railhead of rail respectively, and test Rockwell hardness respectively at the upper corner and the center of the top surface at 10 mm and 30 mm from the surface of railhead according to GB/T 230.1. The test positions and methods are the same for the Examples and the Comparative Examples. The detailed results are shown in tables 4 and 5.

TABLE 4 Mechanical Properties of Rails Prepared with Different Methods (10 mm below the surface of railhead) Room Hardness/HRC Tensile properties temperature Top Rp/MPa Rm/MPa A/% Z/% Aku/J Corner surface Example 1 795 1296 11.5 29 28 39.2 39.0 Example 2 860 1389 10.5 18 26 41.3 41.0 Example 3 761 1272 11.5 27 27 38.2 38.0 Example 4 802 1312 11.0 26 23 39.3 39.4 Example 5 809 1319 11.0 28 25 39.7 39.5 Example 6 820 1341 11.0 24 25 39.8 39.9 Comparative Example 1 816 1336 11.0 23 25 39.4 39.3 Comparative Example 2 853 1384 9.5 18 21 41.0 40.8 Comparative Example 3 761 1265 11.0 22 25 38.1 38.0 Comparative Example 4 799 1306 11.0 24 23 39.0 39.2 Comparative Example 5 805 1315 10.5 26 24 38.5 38.8 Comparative Example 6 789 1290 10.5 24 28 38.6 38.7

TABLE 5 Mechanical Properties of Rails Prepared with Different Methods (30 mm below the surface of railhead) Room Hardness/HRC Tensile properties temperature Top Rp/MPa Rm/MPa A/% Z/% Aku/J Corner surface Example 1 740 1213 11.0 25 23 38.7 38.5 Example 2 820 1300 10.5 20 21 38.9 38.8 Example 3 714 1188 11.0 24 25 37.0 36.8 Example 4 762 1240 11.0 21 24 38.2 38.0 Example 5 746 1258 11.0 22 24 38.5 38.3 Example 6 774 1262 11.5 24 21 39.0 38.8 Comparative Example 1 749 1218 10.5 19 17 37.4 37.6 Comparative Example 2 793 1264 9.5 16 18 38.0 38.3 Comparative Example 3 700 1154 10.0 21 19 36.0 36.1 Comparative Example 4 734 1201 9.5 16 17 37.4 37.3 Comparative Example 5 720 1228 9.5 18 16 37.8 37.6 Comparative Example 6 724 1182 10.0 20 18 37.5 37.4

It can be concluded from the above Examples and Comparative Examples that, the Examples adopting the heat treatment technique of the invention are compared with the Comparative Examples adopting the existing heat treatment technique for the material with the same chemical composition. In the Examples, the cooling medium is blown to the top surface of railhead and the two sides of railhead and the lower jaws on two sides of railhead after the heat treated rail is air-cooled to 800-850° C., and the rail is air-cooled again to the room temperature after the center of top surface of rail is cooled to 520-550° C. at a cooling rate of 3.0-7.0° C./s. On the contrary, the existing technique adopts the single method for heat treatment for the top surface of railhead and the two sides of railhead at a cooling rate of 3.0-7.0° C./s. The comparison results in tables 4 and 5 indicate that the strength, hardness, toughness and plasticity of the part within 10 mm below the surface of the railhead under the technique of the invention are slightly higher than those of the Comparative Examples; more importantly, the strength and toughness of the part at 30 mm below the surface of the railhead is obviously higher than those under the existing heat treatment technique. Thus, it can be concluded that, adding accelerated cooling for the lower jaws of railhead can enhance the overall strength and toughness of railhead and prolong the service life of rail under the same conditions.

The invention provides a rail of railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic and its manufacturing method. With the same composition and the same manufacturing technique, the method can improve the strength and toughness of rail. The product is suitable for railway with passenger and freight mixed traffic. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A manufacturing method for a rail of a railway for mixed passenger and freight traffic, said manufacturing method comprising the following sequential steps: (a) hot rolling a steel billet to form the rail with a final rolling temperature range of 900-1000° C.; (b) air cooling the rail until a center of a top surface of a railhead of the rail is cooled to 800-850° C.; (c) blowing a cooling medium to the top surface of the railhead of the rail, two sides of the railhead and lower jaws on the two sides of the railhead until the center of the top surface of the railhead of the rail is cooled to 520-550° C.; and (d) further air cooling the rail to room temperature.
 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the rail comprises: (i) 0.70 wt. % to 0.85 wt. % C; (ii) 0.15 wt. % to 0.60 wt. % Si; (iii) 0.70 wt. % to 1.05 wt. % Mn; (iv) 0.15 wt. % to 0.50 wt. % Cr; (v) at least one of 0.02 wt. % to 0.10 wt. % V, 0.001 wt. % to 0.030 wt. % Ti and 0.005 wt. % to 0.08 wt. % Nb; and (vi) Fe.
 3. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the cooling medium is at least one of compressed air and a water-air spray mixture.
 4. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein a cooling rate in step (c) is 3.0-7.0° C./s.
 5. A rail of railway for mixed passenger and freight traffic manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the rail comprises: (i) 0.70 wt. % to 0.85 wt. % C; (ii) 0.15 wt. % to 0.60 wt. % Si; (iii) 0.70 wt. % to 1.05 wt. % Mn; (iv) 0.15 wt. % to 0.50 wt. % Cr; (v) at least one of 0.02 wt. % to 0.10 wt. % V, 0.001 wt. % to 0.030 wt. % Ti and 0.005 wt. % to 0.08 wt. % Nb; and (vi) Fe. 